Category Archives: Virginia

April is turning out to be a month of big changes for me and the month is still young…

a week or so ago I had my hair cut and donated fifteen inches to a good cause (I have donated hair in the past but this time around I learned how much it costs to make a human hair wig confirming that monetary donations are very much needed as well)…

for the first time in my life I have braces and what an adventure that is going to be for the next year or so…

late last year we had some work done to reduce the size of part of our herbaceous border getting rid of wild blackberry and honeysuckle vines to name just a few marauders (I Love them in a wild setting but it wasn’t good that they were choking out so many other plants)…

now we are watching to see what survived the clean out before we do any new planting…

I had fun recently altering vintage spools of silk thread that my always generous friend Carmen shared with our mixed media group using a bit of shredded map, wire, moss, rose ribbon trim and a shiny egg or two for the little chick to sit on and the little boy is from the top of a small valentine candy box that I altered years ago (I created the frame using distressed copper mesh and brads)…

the blue Muscari/Grape Hyacinths are definitely a favorite spring flower of mine ♥ they seem to pop up everywhere…

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at the end of November we took a little break from home improvements and drove about 2.5 hours southwest toward the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia…

we booked three nights at the beautiful Inn of Old Virginia and stayed in a lovely room in the renovated barn where some of the exposed beams date back to Civil War times…

there were some beautiful sunrise views from our balcony…

breakfasts at the inn were delicious with such great attention to detail…

it had a relaxing atmosphere with very gracious hosts…

the nearby town of Staunton (pronounced STAN-ten) is known for being the birthplace of Woodrow Wilson who was the 28th president of the U.S… it is home to the American Shakespeare Center with a replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre…

we enjoyed a performance of The 12 Dates of Christmas which was thoroughly entertaining and captivating in the beautiful wooden theatre…

one of the main reasons we chose Staunton was because of a special tea room…we even brought our Traveling Tea Cup along…I could hardly believe there was a REAL thatched cottage in Virginia which reminded us of the thatched cottages in the UK when we visited back in 2013 (photo below)…

that is us standing in front of Anne Hathaway’s real cottage in Stratford-upon-Avon and we stumbled upon Hathaway TEA Rooms there and enjoyed a huge tea for two out in the garden… back to Virginia where we celebrated my 5 December birthday atAnne Hathaway’s Cottage Tea Room (tea for one and Mr Magpie had the Plowman’s Lunch…we shared a pot of Earl Grey)…

such a fun time and I didn’t even get to tell you about our visit to the Frontier Culture Museum…but I’ve kept you so long already…

wishing you a very Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

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a local cut your own farm (Burnside Farms) planted over 30 varieties of “cutting” sunflowers (Helianthus) on about six acres in successive crops to ensure at least six weeks of blooming flowers…our August tropical heat and humidity kept me indoors a good bit and I almost missed them…

lots of excitement here as we are still in the throws of construction (one thing definitely leads to another after so many years of not doing much…the guys doing the work are so nice and doing a fabulous job)…before the carpet installers came I wrote a message in the corner of the porch and snapped a few photos of the paint splatters (we chose some ruff and ready earth colored carpet that I hope grows on me)…

fun to see how a coat of paint can bring new life to an old dark oak dresser that we had rescued years ago (we picked up the top at a yard sale for ten dollars way back when)…

our old wicker was in need of paint too and now it will last a long time since it won’t be exposed to the elements like it was when the porch was open on two sides…

there shouldn’t be any more butterflies to rescue from the skylights (we were amazed at how many would get trapped trying to reach the sky when the porch was open)…

one of our passion vines is flourishing in the tropical summer heat… a handful of flowers open each day in the midday sun…

they look and smell so pretty floating in water but only last a day…

it is lovely to have the windows wide open with no worry of being bothered by bugs (we are looking into a ductless wall mounted unit that will heat and cool the porch nicely so it can be used year round)…

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a visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardenswas the only outing we had planned for the 4th of July holiday…feeling hungry after hours of admiring the loti we thought we would try a local PAUL Bakery and cafe … which is located in a shopping mallwe hardly ever visit…back in April we had enjoyed a tasty bite to eat at a PAUL concession in the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris (above) and were delighted to find out there were a few here in the US…so on the 4th of July we feasted on silky custard veggie quiche and some delicious French pastries with cappuccinos and brought home a delicious sesame seeded baguette made with organic flour that was baked on the premises…after all that we decided to walk around each of the three levels of the enclosed shopping mall…

Mr Magpie was right that we needed the I ♥ Paris mug and then I spotted the I ♥ San Francisco mug (two of our favorite cities how could we resist)…we drove home in the rain but stopped for a quick out the car window photo shoot of a building being demolished…

it always fills me with a bit of sadness along with wonder and fascination to see buildings being taken down like that (fun reflections in the building across the street)…and finally I just had to share the beauty of some gorgeous allium bulbs planted at the entrance of a community recreation center which looked a bit like fireworks to me…

we walked out under umbrellas with me snapping photos while Mr M made sure we didn’t get run over…

on 10 July we enjoyed our second visit to the aquatic gardens and even snapped a couple of photos of the beautiful waterlilies which are quite different from our favorite lotus blooms above and waterlilies below (we also stopped in for a bite at PAUL’s again = YUM!)…

wishing everyone a Happy T Day ~♥~ thank you as always for making the time to visit with me here

on Friday we drove south for a little less than three hours to spend the weekend with him in Waynesboro, Virginia…he decided to take a zero day/day off on Saturday to recharge his battery spending time with us and doing some laundry… loading up on carbs and enjoying some nice hot baths/showers too (his Dad even gave him one of his famous foot massages)…

most days on the trail he hikes 20+ miles and even clocked in 31 miles a day or two burning lots and lots of calories in the process (we have never seen him eat so much!!!)…

we enjoyed hearing about his life on the trail and got to meet some of the hikers that seemed to pop up all around town…

the Edelweiss Restaurant was a favorite of ours on the way back and forth from Virginia Tech when Colin was going to school there… right after I explained how special the song EDELWEISS is because it was the wedding song I walked down the aisle to we stepped into the restaurant and guess what that gentleman in lederhosen was playing on his accordion ♥

Waynesboro really lives up to their city motto of Hospitality in the Valley by offering free rides from the AT into town with everyone being very friendly and gracious (they maintain a volunteer calling list to provide rides to hikers all around town)…

by Sunday morning he was itching to get back on the trail so he enjoyed a last big all you can eat breakfast at the hotel and we bid him Auf Wiedersehen after a quick Traveling Tea Cup photo (pinkies in the air)…

and their special Alphonse Mucha exhibit…it was really splendid but no photos are permitted on traveling exhibits so I don’t have much more than this to share…

it would certainly be worth a return trip as there are lots of fine exhibits there…

since it was the first sunny day out of almost twelve days of rain we were drawn to the lovely gardens…

I liked the Pink Pavilion and Fountain Courtyard a lot…as you can see we brought the traveling tea cup along for my Mother’s Day outing…

we enjoyed our day…

I hope you had a lovely weekend too…

here’s wishing you a Happy T Day along with everyone over at Elizabeth’s Altered Book Lover…

“Today, just take time to smell the roses, enjoy those little things about your life, your family, spouse, friends, job. Forget about the thorns -the pains and problems they cause you – and enjoy life”. -Bernard Kelvin Clive

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even though this past weekend was the unofficial end to summer here in the U.S. I am still enjoying being barefoot around the house and we are not ready to turn off the air conditioning quite yet…

it has been very nice weather for sitting out on our shady back porch….

change is in the air and the other morning started out a bit cool and crisp so I decided to brew some tea in a favorite Sunnex stainless steel teapot that I picked up on a trip to Ireland many years ago…

it does a great job of keeping the tea hot especially tucked up in one of my tea cozies (unfortunately the lovely tea cozy lady is no longer in business)…

I had a bit of fun and challenged myself to pour with my left hand while snapping some photos with my right which can be a bit tricky because of where the button is located on my phone camera…

the healing Turmeric tea tasted nice and I enjoyed a few blooms that I cut from our poor dry garden…

the peace and quiet of our back porch frequently inspires me to take photos and play with flowers …

it is always fun how one thing can lead to another and another…

here’s wishing you a Happy T Day with plenty of time to enjoy the season you are in…

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Love Quote

"the 'L' in Love should be capitalized" ~♥~Patty Szymkowicz .....
Virginia, USA

*Copyright = A FRIENDLY REMINDER TO PLAY NICE*

I try to give credit where credit is due. Please do not use any images or text from my Magpie's Nest Blog without my permission.
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~*~ Patty

you can contact me at:
PatriziaSzymkowicz (at) gmail.com

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